Ep18 - Struggling with Email Content? Here’s What to Write

Aug 19, 2024

 

You know you should be using email marketing…

But when it comes to sitting down to write emails…do you just get stuck?

If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone,

Many healthcare professionals are right there, feeling stuck with you!

How do I know?


Well, in July, I posted THIS question in my Beyond the Clinic Business Facebook Group:


"Who here struggles with email marketing? Comment below and I’ll DM you with some personalised advice."


I can divulge that eight people responded…and seven out of the eight struggled with the exact same thing:

They didn’t know what to write about. 


So, curious to find out more, I put a question box on my Instagram stories too. 

This time, another 20 colleagues responded.

And you guessed it – every single one of them said the same thing!

That’s what sparked the idea for this two-part series on how to email your list – with purpose.


Today, I’m covering exactly what to write in your emails… 

So that your subscribers stay interested, engaged and get ready to become your next happy, paying clients. Woo hoo!


Dive in to discover:


The three types of emails that every business needs to send – including yours!


How to cleverly structure your emails – so they actually lead to sales


Why frequency matters (and why once-a-month email newsletters just won’t cut it)


If you’ve ever wondered whether your emails are actually working, this post is a perfect fit for you!

Let’s explore…

 

The Three Types of Emails You NEED to Send

Most business owners know they should be sending emails…but what are you meant to send?

Let me tell you something.

Without a clear strategy, email marketing is like throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping something sticks!

It’s not the best way to grow your business and bring in the income you deserve. (But we’ll fix that!)


In fact, most business owners:

  • Know they need to grow an email list
  • Know they need to send their list valuable content
  • But don’t know how it all fits together – or how to check if their efforts are actually working!

That’s why you need a system. Let’s have a nosey…


Do you know the 3 key types of emails every business should send?


  1. The Welcome Sequence (to welcome in those keen new subscribers – don’t miss this bit!)
  2. Nurture Emails (to warm them up and keep them engaged and interested in you)
  3. Sales Campaigns (when you’re ready to sell your fantastic offers)

Each one has a distinct purpose…


And when you get them right, they work together to move people from new subscribers to eager, paying clients!


So let’s take each one, in turn…

 

1. The Welcome Sequence: Making a Strong First Impression

It breaks my heart when business owners miss out this VITAL step in their email marketing game!

When someone joins your email list – whether through a freebie, webinar, or challenge – they’re at their MOST EXCITED to hear from you and discover what you do.

If you don’t take the chance to welcome them with open arms, you will miss these golden moments.

They might even forget who you are.


Imagine – inviting someone into your house – and then leaving them loitering awkwardly at the door with their coat on, without welcoming them in and making a cuppa!


Do you see my point? I know you’re far too polite for that!


That’s why I encourage you to send a series of welcome emails. (Not just one!) 


A good welcome sequence is a series of emails sent to your new subscriber over 5-7 days that:


Introduces them to you (your story, expertise, and unique approach)


Builds trust and credibility (so they see you as the go-to expert)


Gets them in the habit of opening your emails and clicking your links


 

What Should Your Welcome Emails Say?

Great question! Let’s take a look…

 

Day 1: Remind them about your freebie

Many people forget they even signed up. 

(Do you do that too? I know I do!) 

So let’s be super helpful and remind them, and include that link again.


Day 2: Share your story

People buy from people, not businesses. 

That’s why it’s SO important to share your journey – to connect, stand out and be remembered as the person who can help.

But make sure you share your story in a way that’s relevant to your reader (and sounds friendly and approachable).

Instead of saying, “I have a master’s in nutrition and 15 years of experience,” tell them:

"I’ve spent 15 years helping parents of fussy eaters transform mealtimes. But my journey started long before that… (Insert story here).”


Day 3: Transformative personal experience or client story

If you’ve personally experienced the struggle your audience faces, it’s time to share that story. 

If you haven’t, don’t worry. You can tell a story about a client who achieved their goal – with your help using your approach.


Day 4: Answer common questions

Think about the top questions new clients often ask you – and provide useful answers.


Day 5: Address myths and misconceptions

Now it’s time to challenge a common assumption in your field. (This is another way to start positioning yourself as the go-to expert.)

If you work in gut health, you might say: "Probiotics aren’t always the answer – here’s why."


Day 6-7: Soft invitation to take the next step

This is not a sales email, but it introduces the idea that working with you is an option.


Here’s an example of how you could do that, without being “salesy”:

"If you’ve been struggling with XYZ, I have a free 15-minute discovery call available this week. Let’s talk about how I can help you achieve [insert their no 1 goal]. You’re welcome to book in here."


Why This Works

Your welcome sequence builds trust before you start selling. 

If you get it right, by the time you present your offer, your subscribers are already warm and engaged. 

Well done!


Why not grab a pen and make a few notes on what you could include in your email welcome sequence? 

 

2. Nurture Emails: Keeping Your Audience Engaged

This is what most people think of as their newsletter.

But here’s the thing:


There’s a huge misconception that you only need to send a newsletter once a month – and that’s terrible advice!


If you only email once a month, your audience forgets who you are. (Let’s face it – our inboxes are busy!) 

By the time you pop up again, they don’t remember why they signed up, and your email gets deleted without being read. 

Ouch! All that hard work, down the drain.

So let’s make sure you’re emailing at least once a week.


What Should Your Nurture Emails Say?

Your nurture emails must be relevant to what your audience is struggling with.

  • Start with a hook – Tap into a frustration or challenge they experience daily
  • Make it relatable – Show them you understand
  • Guide them to a solution – Link to a blog, podcast, or video you’ve created

Be the expert who gets it – and is ready to help.


Here’s an example for you:

Let’s say you’re an intuitive eating dietitian. Your ideal client is a busy mum who:

  • Feels exhausted juggling everything
  • Struggles with her body confidence after having kids
  • Wants to fit back into her pre-baby jeans

You’ve written a blog post reviewing fad diets vs. the non-diet approach.

Your email shouldn’t be about intuitive eating – because your audience isn’t searching for that yet. (It’s still the solution they don’t know they need!)

Instead, make it relatable:

"Have you ever found yourself starving by 3 pm, picking at your kids’ leftover fish fingers, then feeling guilty for ‘ruining’ your diet? 

You’re not alone. In today’s blog, I break down why this happens – and what actually works for long-term weight loss."

Your audience will click because it speaks directly to what’s going on for them.


Key Takeaways for Your Nurture Emails:

Email at least once a week


Focus on their real-life problems and frustrations, not just your expertise


Link to something valuable (blog, video, free training)


What will your next nurture email be?

 

3. Sales Campaigns: Turning Your Subscribers into Paying Clients

Once your audience knows, likes, and trusts you, they’re ready to buy. Go you!

This is where your sales campaigns come in.


A sales campaign is a structured email sequence that:


Presents your offer


Handles the objections your buyer may have


Creates urgency to buy now


Encourages action!


Want to know more?


These emails should:

  • Explain why now is the right time to take action 
  • Include social proof (testimonials, case studies)
  • Address common objections (cost, time, fear of failure – the things that may hold your buyer back from investing in you)

Without a structured sales sequence, people won’t buy.

But when you get it right – it’s far more likely that they will!

 

Final Thoughts: Do You Have an Email Strategy?

Email marketing takes time and effort, but if you’re not sending emails with a clear strategy, your current efforts are wasted anyway! 

I know you can get this right. 


I encourage you to ask yourself:


Do I have a welcome sequence in place?


Am I emailing my list at least once a week?


Do my emails reflect my audience’s biggest struggles and desires?


Your emails should lead your keen new subscriber from first contact to sale, nurturing and building trust along the way.

You’ve got this!

 

Part 2: How to Grow Your Email List (The Right Way)

Now that you know what to write, in our next blog we’ll get crystal clear on how to actually grow your list

Including the biggest mistake I see business owners make with their freebies! (Let’s make sure you don’t make that one.)

 

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This guide really is your master plan to business success! Grab your free copy, right here…https://www.sarahalmondbushell.com/master-plan

 

Connect with me here:

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YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BeyondTheClinicPodcast

 

 

Episode transcription:

[00:00:00] Sarah Almond Bushell: Welcome along. And before we dive into today's episode, I just want to say a real heartfelt thanks for all of the lovely comments and tags on Instagram that people have left for my podcast, for listening to the podcast. It's really great to know that this is having an impact, that it's reaching you out there and that you're enjoying it.

[00:00:22] Sarah Almond Bushell: So thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for tuning in. So today I want to talk to you about email content. And this came about because back in July, I popped a question into my Beyond the Clinic Business Facebook group that said, who here struggles with email marketing, comment below, and I will DM you with some personalized advice.

[00:00:48] Sarah Almond Bushell: And about eight people responded, and we started to have a bit of a back and forth conversation about emailing your list. And what surprised me was that seven out of the eight people struggled with exactly the same thing. And so I thought, I'm going to test this a little wider. And so I popped a question box up on my Instagram stories and a further 20 colleagues responded, and guess what?

[00:01:15] Sarah Almond Bushell: Each and every one of them struggled with knowing what to write about in their newsletters. To their email list. And this is what has sparked this week's and next week's podcast episodes. Email marketing, it's a really meaty topic. And when you get the strategy right, it can honestly pay dividends. I wouldn't be able to do it just as cramming everything in that I want you to know into just one episode.

[00:01:45] Sarah Almond Bushell: Today, this is part one of a two part mini series. dedicated to how to email your list with a purpose. So let's dive in and answer that question. What should you write about in your emails to your subscribers? So when I first learned about email marketing, it was about Seven years or so ago, I was taught about the newsletter.

[00:02:12] Sarah Almond Bushell: I didn't really know the purpose of the newsletter back then, only that it was something that I could email my list about to keep them informed and up to date on my specialist area, which at the time was baby nutrition. And what's interesting to me is that my colleagues have got exactly the same understanding.

[00:02:33] Sarah Almond Bushell: They know they need to grow an email list. They know they need to send useful information to the people who are on that list. But they don't know the purpose. They don't know how to measure whether their email has had an impact. Or not, as the case may be. And they don't know whether these emails lead to more clients or more sales.

[00:02:57] Sarah Almond Bushell: And so I want to rewind a little bit and I want to share with you three types of emails that you need to be sending to your list and the purpose of each of these three emails and what you need to say or communicate or get across to your reader in each and every one. So let's dive into the first one.

[00:03:17] Sarah Almond Bushell: The first type of email is the welcome sequence. So as its name suggests, it's a sequence of emails. It's not just one, and it gets delivered to all the new people who join your list. If people have subscribed via a freebie, for example, that you might have shared on social media, the day after receiving their freebie, it's customary to send your first welcome email.

[00:03:43] Sarah Almond Bushell: I send mine at 7am the next day. But, How many of you have signed up for someone's freebie and then forgotten about it because the doorbells rang and you've got 7, 000 tabs open on your computer and you'd forgotten what you were doing. And that email freebie is sat there in your inbox. I know I have done that.

[00:04:04] Sarah Almond Bushell: I am absolutely guilty of that as well. So in that very first welcome email that you're sending out you want to remind people about your freebie and Tease them a little bit with what it contains, because essentially what we want to do is we want to encourage people to go and check it out. Because the point after all of having a freebie or a lead magnet, as it's sometimes called, is to get this brand new relationship off to a really positive start.

[00:04:34] Sarah Almond Bushell: Because what we're doing here is we're giving our new subscriber a quick win or a small So the following emails in the sequence are often delivered once a day for around a week or so. And they're all about deepening that brand new relationship between you and your business and your subscriber. So I've said this before, but I'll say it again.

[00:05:01] Sarah Almond Bushell: People buy from people and not businesses. So in your welcome sequence, you need to let people in. They need to know your story. They need to see a little bit of the behind the scenes. They need to hear some fun facts and some quirkiness and even a bit of humor. And that's because people remember these things.

[00:05:21] Sarah Almond Bushell: They remember stories rather than information or tips and advice. And when they like you, Because of your stories and because of your personality, they will then engage with the content that you're sharing. It's not the other way around. So they need to like you first before they decide to see what it is that you can offer, even if it's your free stuff.

[00:05:44] Sarah Almond Bushell: So your welcome sequence is also an opportunity for you to establish yourself as the expert or the authority in your space. And so you weave this into your story. rather than just stating, I've got a master's in nutrition and 15 years of experience. Now the overarching strategy behind the welcome sequence is to move your subscriber along the psychological journey towards becoming a buyer.

[00:06:10] Sarah Almond Bushell: We need to get them into the habit of clicking our links so that in the future, When you do present them with an offer to work with you, they're just in the habit of clicking through. It's all about just making an awesome first impression and dropping a bit of a hint about what's to come. Okay, let's go into the nitty gritty now and talk about what you need to say in each of these emails.

[00:06:35] Sarah Almond Bushell: As I alluded to, that first welcome email that you send out needs to be a reminder of the freebie. We all need reminding about things more than once, and sending a link to that freebie again positions you as a bit of a friendly accountability partner. You also want to hint in that email about your story, but you're not going to tell your story in this email.

[00:06:57] Sarah Almond Bushell: You're going to hint that this is coming tomorrow. This hint needs to drive a So that they're looking out for tomorrow's email. So in the next email, that's going to be your professional story. So this is the story of why you do what you do. And really, although it's about you, it's really about them.

[00:07:20] Sarah Almond Bushell: It's about what's in it for them, how you can impact their lives. So you want to be highlighting two or three of their pain points or frustrations or problems that link to their main problem so that it leads them to consider why you might be the person To help them, the right person for them. So again, you want to be sprinkling in that quirkiness.

[00:07:46] Sarah Almond Bushell: What makes you? Your story here, it's going to be positioning your authority and your credibility as well as giving away a little bit of your personality. The next email in your sequence. Now, if you've ever been in your ideal client's shoes in the past, this email is a perfect opportunity to share that experience and share your personal story.

[00:08:12] Sarah Almond Bushell: So the purpose of this here is connection. Now, if you haven't had personal experience, and honestly, you don't have to, because if you think about it, most cancer doctors, for example, haven't had cancer. You can just share a story about a client that you've worked with and helped. Again, what you're showcasing here is your experience, but you do need to ensure that your personality really shines through and that connection is made.

[00:08:39] Sarah Almond Bushell: You want them to be thinking she or he knows exactly what it's like for them. Then the next email is all about value. I like to provide value. I like to address their frequently asked questions. But, I, what I do here is I make sure that I'm linking out for resources for them to dive deeper into. So if you've got your own blog, link that.

[00:09:03] Sarah Almond Bushell: If you've got recipes, link to those. You don't have any of that, then just link out to a credible source. Again, it positions yourself as the person in the know, either because you've got your own stuff, or you know about other people's stuff that you can send them to. The next email, you might want to bust some common myths.

[00:09:23] Sarah Almond Bushell: You want to get your subscribers to stick with you. When you start to think differently about a situation, essentially reversing any of the presumptions that they've made about their condition, or their health concern, or their worries, or their dreams, or things they might have tried in the past. Next up, I also like to address why what they've already tried before hasn't worked.

[00:09:47] Sarah Almond Bushell: Because what this does is this positions me as a leader. And it also introduces the idea that I have a different or a unique approach. And many of our subscribers or our potential clients are looking for something different because often when they have identified that they've got a problem, they may have tried several things already and it hasn't worked out for them.

[00:10:10] Sarah Almond Bushell: So when you're doing these thought reversals, while, when you're addressing the things that they've already tried and getting them to think about a different way. It shows them that you have something unique and it helps you stand out from the crowd. And then finally, if you've written this sequence well and you've taken your client through that series of mini psychological steps, you can End with a very soft call to action.

[00:10:40] Sarah Almond Bushell: So this might be an option to purchase a low cost offer from you, or it might be to book a discovery call. What I will say here is this is a welcome sequence. This is not a sales sequence. And so if you do have a call to action that involves them parting with some hard earned cash, it needs to be very gentle because if you get this wrong, you can look a bit spammy and you can end up with just people unsubscribing at that point.

[00:11:10] Sarah Almond Bushell: So this welcome sequence is delivered once a day, every single day, and at the end of that, your subscribers know you. And they're starting to like you, and perhaps they're beginning to trust you a little bit, and then they start getting your nurture emails. Your nurture emails. This is what most people call their newsletters.

[00:11:32] Sarah Almond Bushell: Now, there is a vicious rumour going round that you only need to send a newsletter once a month. Let me just state this one thing. That is bad advice. I was given this advice too back in 2017 when I started building my email list. I was advised to just do what you could manage because I was working full time in the NHS.

[00:11:56] Sarah Almond Bushell: But to be honest, it's not worth the time, the energy, or the money you pay your email service provider to actually have people on your list. If you only email them once a month, and that's because once a month it just isn't enough to nurture the relationship between your subscriber and you and your business.

[00:12:16] Sarah Almond Bushell: In fact, they probably don't even know who you are. They probably can't remember how they even got signed up to your list in the first place. If you think about it, Our email inboxes are rammed. We get hundreds of emails every single day. Most of them most people, I should say, have them just sitting there unread.

[00:12:38] Sarah Almond Bushell: Or if you're like me, because I can't stand a messy inbox, I just swipe and delete them. But those people who email me often, I've clocked them. Before I've swiped and deleted. I've noticed their name or their business name. So they're familiar. Okay. Yes. I might not have read the email that they've sent me, but they're top of mind.

[00:13:00] Sarah Almond Bushell: So the key with nurture emails is that they need to be sent often. And the strategy you've guessed by the name, is to nurture your potential clients so that they get closer and closer to becoming an actual paying client. So in these emails, we need to get them thinking, Oh my goodness, it's like they've read my mind.

[00:13:22] Sarah Almond Bushell: You're showing them that you understand their needs, that you can feel their pain points, and that you're relatable and specific in your email content. We need to get them looking forward to taking action, whether that's to read your next email that you're sending them, to click on the link, to go to your blog, to listen to your new podcast episode, to book a slot on your forthcoming master class or webinar, or to book a discovery call.

[00:13:52] Sarah Almond Bushell: We want them to get, to look forward to taking that next step with you. So what do you actually say in these nurture emails?

[00:14:03] Sarah Almond Bushell: So remember, we want to encourage our readers to click a link, and therefore I always start my emails with that in mind. So if you've written a blog that you want to share, the email surrounding that link to your blog needs to be really relevant to the blog content, and it needs to be relatable to your And then we need to take a step back and we need to consider how you can make this blog that you're sharing relatable to their day to day lives.

[00:14:33] Sarah Almond Bushell: So we do this by tapping into our ideal customers pain points. When I say pain points, this is their fears. This is their worries or anxieties. It's the things that keep them lying awake in bed at night. It could be their frustrations, or the little things that annoy them on a daily basis. On the flip side, it could be their desires, the goals, the hopes, the dreams, the results that they would like to achieve.

[00:15:02] Sarah Almond Bushell: And then once we've taken that information, we need to add in the specifics. So this is how those pains, those frustrations, or those desires actually play out in their day to day lives and the emotions that they invoke. So this is all very theoretical. So I'm going to walk you through an example. So you can see exactly what I mean.

[00:15:25] Sarah Almond Bushell: So this is a real life example of a client that I work with one to one who is an intuitive eating dietitian. And she helps busy women manage their weight using the non diet approach. Your ideal client, she is a busy mum. She's tired. She's exhausted, actually. She's juggling being a wife, a mum, her work, her housework, and actually, you know what?

[00:15:51] Sarah Almond Bushell: Her self esteem isn't as good as it could be. She says her body doesn't feel like it used to feel since having children. She's got this wardrobe full of clothes that don't fit anymore, and frankly, she just doesn't feel attractive anymore. So you've written this blog post all about the different weight loss and fad diet techniques and you've really celebrated how awesome the non diet approach is and you really want to share this incredible piece of content that squashes diet culture far and wide.

[00:16:24] Sarah Almond Bushell: So the question is how do we make this relatable to your subscriber, to your ideal customer? If we think about it, We know her very well. We know that her pain is that she wants to lose weight. Her desire is that she wants to look good and wear her old wardrobe again. Her frustration might be that she's tried all those fad diets and always ends up starving.

[00:16:50] Sarah Almond Bushell: She may harbour anxieties that her husband might leave her because she doesn't want to be with him because she feels so unattractive. Then, we need to think about how do we make this specific. She's likely not eaten much all day, because she's quote unquote trying to be good, and she finds herself picking the leftover fish fingers on her children's dinner plates.

[00:17:15] Sarah Almond Bushell: And then she feels guilty, And shameful for doing that. Or perhaps she's supposed to be going for a date night with her husband, and she's lying on her bed, flat on her back, trying to zip up her skinny jeans, surrounded by loads of other clothes that no longer fit. And she feels a bit of self loathing and actual disgust.

[00:17:36] Sarah Almond Bushell: Now this is the content that needs to go into your emails to surround the link to that blog. And you can make a simple segue with a line that says, I've written a blog to review the most popular diets and I've also found another way. Click here to read the blog. So you're given a little bit of intrigue with that as well.

[00:17:58] Sarah Almond Bushell: Now you might think, Oh my God, Sarah, I'm not writing anything like that because I am an intuitive eating, non diet. approach dietician. So I am not going to be talking about all of those feelings around wanting to lose weight. But if you write the email that you want to write about, the non diet approach, or you're focusing on intuitive eating, it's going to land on deaf ears because it's what you want and not what your ideal client wants.

[00:18:26] Sarah Almond Bushell: They simply won't be interested. It won't resonate with her and that's because within our culture we have been conditioned to believe that we need to go on a diet in order to lose weight. So my point here is that you need to meet your subscriber where they're at. You need to relate to their pains and their problems, their hopes and their desires and you need to paint a picture of how this looks in their everyday lives.

[00:18:53] Sarah Almond Bushell: And then you can guide them to read your blog. And it's within that blog that you're going to introduce another way. You can write several emails that all link to this same piece of content that you want to share, this same blog. Don't think it's just one and done. Make the most of this awesome blog that you've just written and send your email subscribers to it a few different times.

[00:19:19] Sarah Almond Bushell: So with your nurture emails, the frequency needs to be somewhere between daily and weekly, but no less often than that. You might be panicking at the idea of daily. I know that I certainly was of, I think back to my former self when I was fairly new in business, but honestly, if you email less than once a week, your subscribers just won't be nurtured.

[00:19:44] Sarah Almond Bushell: And then finally, the third type of email that I want to go through with you today are your sales campaign emails. So at this point, the people who've joined your list, they know who you are, they know what you do and how you can help them. They've gotten to know the person behind the brand, so they've formed a connection with you.

[00:20:04] Sarah Almond Bushell: If you've done your nurturing well, they'll also understand that you are the go to person, that you write as though you've been reading their mind, or you've been a fly on the wall observing their day to day lives, and you truly understand what's going on for them, what their problems are, and where they want to be instead.

[00:20:21] Sarah Almond Bushell: When the time is right for you, And you've decided that you want to sell a few spaces to new clients, whether that be your one to one, a group program, your course, a membership, your eBooks, or even selling other people's things as an affiliate, you need to initiate a sales campaign. So I've said this one before as well, and I'm going to say it again, but people don't just stumble across your website and decide to buy, there's a whole deeper buyer psychology and psychology of the sales process that people need to go through when they're making their buying decisions.

[00:21:00] Sarah Almond Bushell: There is an exception to this, and I'll mention it now, but this is an episode for a whole other day. There's four known buyer personas, and a small percentage of the population are what we call impulse buyers. Who will buy your thing without going through those psychological steps? I am one of these people.

[00:21:19] Sarah Almond Bushell: I buy because of recommendation. So if your colleague or your friend recommends you to me And I need that thing that you're offering. That's me sold. Okay. We digress. What are the psychological steps that need to go into your email sale sequence? So first of all, you need to present your offer. Then you need to share social proof.

[00:21:45] Sarah Almond Bushell: You need to address their objections. You need to give them a reason to buy now and not later. You need to add some FOMO, some fear of missing out. You need to get them to future pace, what life would be like when their problem has gone away after working with you, and then you need to provide urgency and or scarcity.

[00:22:07] Sarah Almond Bushell: So that's quite a lot, so let me unpack this and we'll take each of those emails together. One by one. So the first one, the easy one really, is you need to present your offer. So when you do this, I always think it's useful to, because I'm a teeny tiny little bit of your story, about how this product or service came about.

[00:22:26] Sarah Almond Bushell: You need to be sharing the benefits of your offer and what's in it for them. Please don't share the features because people don't care less about the features. If you don't know whether what you're stating is a feature or a benefit, try adding a so that at the end of what you're saying. For example, if you state, you get three one to one calls with me, that's a feature.

[00:22:50] Sarah Almond Bushell: There's no benefit in that. But if you say, you get three one to one calls with me so that we can troubleshoot and optimise your weight loss so that you reach your target more quickly, That is a benefit. It's what's in it for them. You also need to include your urgency or scarcity tactic in this initial email as well.

[00:23:10] Sarah Almond Bushell: So whatever reason that you've chosen to give them the reason to buy now. So that could be a deadline to book a discovery call. You might only have a certain number of slots in your diary. It might be that there's only a limited number of spots available, or it might be it's a discount that's going to be expiring.

[00:23:29] Sarah Almond Bushell: And then you need to send them to a sales page where they can consume more information, learn a little bit more. And then on that sales page will be the button to book the call or buy the thing. And then I always like to add a PS one sentence summary of the offer, really just for those people who skim read.

[00:23:51] Sarah Almond Bushell: Cause a lot of people do. So that's your first email in a sales sequence. It's just stating what it is that you're offering for your client and what's in it for them. The second email is the social proof. So this is your testimonials. This is Your case studies. If you've got people who have worked with you and had great results, I hope you're asking them for a testimonial because this is the stuff that you need to be sharing when you're selling things.

[00:24:23] Sarah Almond Bushell: Essentially, people just need to know that other people have gone through what they're going through and succeeded. And if they can get that directly from another person, that's awesome. far more valuable than what you can tell them yourself. So if you have written testimonials, take screenshots of them, anonymize them, and use those to share in your emails.

[00:24:48] Sarah Almond Bushell: If people have left you videos, this is gold. You want to be sharing those videos in your emails as well. If they've just left you some kind words and they've allowed you to tweak them slightly so it makes more sense to your reader, then you can absolutely rewrite those as well. They're possibly not as valuable as actual physical proof like a photo or a video, but essentially your social proof needs to show the before and the after.

[00:25:17] Sarah Almond Bushell: And if there's some kind of pivotal moment in the middle as well, that's great as well. Your next email has to address the objections. In this email, you want to be listing out all of the questions that you tend to get asked about your offer. And you need to answer them. So sometimes this email is referred to in the marketing world as the mindset shift, because what we're trying to do is we're trying to tap into your potential customers limiting beliefs.

[00:25:49] Sarah Almond Bushell: So they will have reasons for not buying based on internal limiting beliefs and also external ones as well. So for example, it'll be, I don't think I can do this because Whatever the belief is, or this doesn't apply to me because, and then whatever that belief is, you need to address them. There might be some more practical questions as well about the offer.

[00:26:15] Sarah Almond Bushell: Can I share my password with my partner? So use these frequently asked questions in this email so that people have got answers to the things that might be going through their mind when they're considering your offer. The next email needs to go into a little bit more detail or reflect back to them, I should say, the reason for buying now.

[00:26:37] Sarah Almond Bushell: So if you do not give people a reason to buy now, they will put it off for later. And guess what? Later very rarely comes. They move on with their lives. They forget about it. They see somebody else's offer instead and they buy that instead. So you might want to offer a bonus here or an incentive. Some people call it a mid cart bonus if you've got a time limited launch, for example.

[00:27:01] Sarah Almond Bushell: And what this can do is, it doesn't have to be anything too major, but it can just be Push people over the line. So those people who are procrastinating, who think they want it, but they haven't taken that step yet, this can just be a little bit of a, an incentive to get them to bind now. The next email needs to be that fear of missing out, that FOMO.

[00:27:23] Sarah Almond Bushell: So here we're talking about what will happen when they do take your course or your program or work with you one to one or buy your thing, but they're not And we're comparing it with what will happen if they do nothing. For example, you might have, Would you rather know specifically what to say or not to say to your child at the dinner table so they're interested in what's on their plate?

[00:27:49] Sarah Almond Bushell: Or are you going to continue winging it and wondering whether they'll go to bed hungry again? That's the kind of thing I might say in an email, a sales email, in the Children's Nutritionist when I am selling my Fussy Eating Fixed Program. And then the next email, this is the future pace email. This is one of my favorite ones because in this email, you want to get them visualizing what the outcome will be if they do sign up to work with you.

[00:28:17] Sarah Almond Bushell: So you are using a bit of a storytelling framework here. You're painting a picture with descriptive words of what life could look like for them in the short term and also in the long term. Okay. once they have achieved the results that you can get for them. And again, you link that to what goes on in their everyday life.

[00:28:39] Sarah Almond Bushell: So tapping back into what we were saying earlier about being specific and being relatable, you do that, but in the future of what life looks like for them when their problems have gone away. And then the final day emails. So these are three emails. I like to send three emails on the last day. And the reason for that is you're giving people the last opportunity to take action now.

[00:29:06] Sarah Almond Bushell: So now what's really interesting is when you're running an email sales campaign, most people buy on the deadline and they may have been reading these emails or they may have skipped a few, but they're When you send three on the last day, this is almost the final chance for them to take action now. So most sales do come in on the deadline.

[00:29:26] Sarah Almond Bushell: So as I say, I like to send three emails on the last day. I recommend that one of them includes more social proof, like your testimonials or sharing a case study, because often this is the decision maker for many people about whether to make that purchase or not. They just need to see that you can get them the results that they want.

[00:29:47] Sarah Almond Bushell: And your testimonials and your social proof do exactly that. I usually send that in the morning, again around 7am. And then the next email that I send is somewhere between 6 and 10 hours later. It's also a good idea at this point in this email to touch on your ideal client's problems and desires again, because it just serves as a reminder of why they're reading your emails in the first place, why they're interested.

[00:30:15] Sarah Almond Bushell: And then the final email is just short and sweet. I tend to send this an hour before the deadline and it's just to tell them that this is the final email that they'll get from me about this particular offer because this offer is going to expire in an hour.

[00:30:33] Sarah Almond Bushell: So it goes without saying, hopefully, but my clients are guided through writing all of these emails as they work with me in the mastermind. But it is absolutely something you can outsource to a copywriter, or by all means, you can have a go at doing these yourself, what's really important is getting that strategy right so that you're moving people along that customer journey.

[00:30:55] Sarah Almond Bushell: So now, what to say in each of the three types of emails you send to your list of subscribers. You know the strategy behind them so that you're no longer emailing without a purpose. You know how to make them engaging with specificity and relatability. And if you're scratching your head at this point thinking that's great, Sarah, but I don't know my ideal customers pain points and frustrations and goals and dreams.

[00:31:22] Sarah Almond Bushell: And I don't know how this actually plays out in their day to day life. Then you need to go and do some market research and find out. So if you're not sure how to do that, I've got an episode all about that. It's episode four. You can find it at sarahalmondbushell. com forward slash blog forward slash 004.

[00:31:41] Sarah Almond Bushell: And I'll pop that link in the show notes for you as well. But your content needs to reflect back to your reader, their pains, their problems, or their desires using descriptive language that reflects those day to day scenarios and it links to a small piece of advice or tip or article for them to read or resource to watch.

[00:32:01] Sarah Almond Bushell: And when you bring this all together, you're going to build connection and trust, and they will love you. And they, Can't wait to work with you. So my action step for you at the end of this really quite meaty, in depth masterclass of an episode is to just take a step back and look at what you're doing with your emails right now, and just ask yourself, have you got a strategy for them?

[00:32:29] Sarah Almond Bushell: Are you being strategic? I want you to take this 30, 000 foot view because emails and blogs and all the other content that you produce takes a lot of time and effort to make. They may even cost you money if you have people helping you, but if you don't have a strategy for them that leads your people along the sales journey, then You're honestly just wasting your time and your money.

[00:32:54] Sarah Almond Bushell: It's no longer an income generating activity. And this is your business, not just a really expensive and time consuming hobby. So let's get this right. Join me next week for part two of our email marketing mini series, where we're going to be talking about how do you even get people onto your list in the first place.

[00:33:17] Sarah Almond Bushell: So I'm going to give you some strategies on how to grow your list remarkably quickly and let you in on the biggest mistake I see my colleagues make with their lead magnets. Don't miss that one. So that's it for another week. I hope you've loved this week's episode of the Beyond the Clinic podcast. If you have, I would love for you to leave me a review on whichever podcast player you use, because it's this that helps us get pushed out to more listeners and then I can help more health professionals with their businesses too, and if you like what I've been teaching so far, and you would like more help from me in growing your business, then my diary is open for discovery calls.

[00:33:59] Sarah Almond Bushell: My mission is to help as many health professionals as I can grow their businesses, to improve more people's health and well being and of course help you earn more money so that you can have that freedom lifestyle and choices that come from being your own boss. So if you want to chat through how I can help you build your business, just head over to sarahalmondbushell.

[00:34:23] Sarah Almond Bushell: com and you can book a Zoom call with me from there. Bye for now.

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